The direct mail form industry has a general standard construction for pharmacy “mated” forms. The two primary materials used are a pressure sensitive label stock and bond paper. The two materials are glued together along a lateral edge in-line on press to create a form that the pharmacy can print and peel labels off of one side for application on prescription containers while printing instructions on the bond paper side for insertion into the prescription bag. The glue used is applied from a mounted in line glue gun dispensing a thin bead of either emulsion or hot melt adhesive (glue).
In general, this construction slows press speeds down to 20% efficiency. The glue dispenses at a certain speed. If this speed is changed, the amount of glue will vary causing inconsistencies. The glue is often applied immediately after the two rolls of pressure sensitive label stock and bond paper unwind and before the stock and paper enter the print stations. Often there is printing on the back of these forms.
Some of the problems with this construction start with the difference of material thickness between the single layer of bond or paper material and the multi-layered pressure sensitive material. The pressure sensitive material will tend to try and run faster through the press than the bond material. This can cause the central glued area to separate and the construction to tear in the press. It is also very difficult to turn this material for back printing. Wrinkling is common when doing this, and wrinkling is also due to the different thicknesses in the materials.
The current industry standard construction for non-profit direct mail return address label forms is generally 16 to 18 inches wide of full pressure sensitive stock labels. In many cases, these are two across, so the actual finished size after the form is lasered at a mail shop is 8 or 9 inches wide. Pressure sensitive direct mail forms run very efficiently, 80% to 100% press speed. This business segment is also generally very high volume production.
One of the problems in the industry has been the unavailability of a direct mail mated form producible at high speeds. Direct mail shops separately laser these forms, usually lasering a letter on a bond letter material. Both of these pieces are done on different pieces of equipment in the mail shop and both are personalized. This means that the mail shop will have another process of matching the two personalized pieces together for insertion into an envelope for mailing.
By using the pharmacy label mated process, it is possible to supply the mail shop with a product in which both pieces are lasered at the same time thus eliminating the additional process of matching two disparate pieces of mail before envelope insertion. This could be a potentially tremendous savings and increase in efficiency for the mail shop.
However, production concerns are raised in doing a pharmacy label style mated direct mail form. All of the inefficiencies of a mated pharmacy form would create a major negative issue with direct mail forms. Waste would increase, press down time would increase and production times would be cut by 50% or more.